


So Much More To Me (If Only They'd Look Closer)

by lunarknightz



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Courage, Episode Related, Episode Tag, F/M, Gen, Post Episode Fic, Savior bonding, Street Rats, cowardice, savior, season six
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-24
Updated: 2016-10-24
Packaged: 2018-08-24 08:22:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8364928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunarknightz/pseuds/lunarknightz
Summary: Aladdin deals with his past and the consequences of the choices he has made. Set Post/During  "Street Rats", spoilers.





	

Memories hit him like a tidal wave. In an instant he remembered an entire life outside of Storybrooke, of everything that he had been. _A Thief. A Savior. A Coward_. When he could bear the weight of his own history, he ventured out into the town. Just like him, everyone was waking up, remembering lives in another world. Word was that Emma Swan was the Savior, and she’d broken a curse the Evil Queen had cast, creating this cozy little hamlet in this scary little world.

Part of him wanted to go to Emma right away. He’d learned over the years that being the Savior wasn’t a solitary title, there had been other Saviors in the past, and there would be others in the future. It wasn’t a common title by any means, and at the least, Aladdin felt that he should by her a stiff drink and warn her that saving the world for the first time was the easy part. Timing between his courage and Emma actually being available in Storybrooke to sit down and talk never quite meshed. Still, he kept a close hold on the shears. Maybe she’d need them some day. 

He’d always found it easy to get lost in a crowd; perhaps it was his Savior-magic manifesting in a way for self-preservation. Life hadn’t been easy on the streets of Agrabah. Orphaned at a young age, Aladdin had been left to fend for himself. He had to steal to eat, and he had to eat to live, and he’d been good at it. Aladdin had never been caught by the royal guards; learning quickly and quietly to move in the background. It was easy to overlook a street rat. In uncomfortable situations, no person tended to look closely.

In Storybrooke, both before and after the curse, he found it easy to fit into the crowd. He kept his ear to the ground and knew what was going on; but tended to live a simple life without much acclaim or company. He was a friendly face, the kind that people smiled at in line at the Grocery store, the kind that people nodded at as he picked up his favorite baklava from Granny’s on Sundays. He was not the kind of person that got invited to balls, dances, or christenings, and that suited him just fine. Aladdin had given up the chance to save the world.

All magic came with a price. He’d born the price that came with being a Savior, and dealt with the agonizing pain that came with it for as long as he could bear. And then he’d given up. The price that came with using the power of the shears had been the fall of Agrabah. And _Jasmine_. 

Each time that new arrivals came to Storybrooke, he looked for Jasmine. He didn’t deserve to see her again; and he knew that there was a good chance that she was long dead, having perished in the fall of Agrabah like her father the Sultan. But there was a hope in his heart that he couldn’t quell. Jasmine was not found in Neverland; she did not journey back to Storybrooke after the second curse, and she hadn’t been found in Camelot. Aladdin was sure that he would never see his Princess again, until he saw her from a distance, a new arrival from the Land of Untold Stories.

He could have gone to her, he should have gone to her, right there and then. But Aladdin did not. He was not the Aladdin she remembered. He was not the Savior she deserved. 

The Charming family thought themselves stealthy, but they often talked over their plans in public places. He’d heard of their plans to find him; and it wasn’t a stretch to think that sooner or later, that eventually they’d come up with a way to do a locating spell. Though his magic was gone, he still felt a tingle of magic, Emma’s magic, pulling against what had once been his. He planted the scarab, the piece of Jasmine he’d never let go of since the day she’d given it to him. It would be easier to stay in the shadows.

Jasmine’s cries pierced his heart, but he stayed hidden.

Aladdin could not help but overhear Emma’s conversation with her son. It touched him in a way that he hadn’t thought possible. In that moment, he felt a surge of courage that he hadn’t in some time. It was time to come out of the shadows. He was no longer the Savior, that had been his choice. He could still be a hero, perhaps, of a sort.  The shears were in his pocket. He had faced the horrors of being told his future, and managed to change his stars in a way that he wasn’t sure was much better. Likely, Emma wouldn’t make the same choice as he did. But to be fair, Aladdin should help give Emma her best chance. 

For the first time in a very long time, Aladdin felt brave.


End file.
